Stag and Unicorn

Stag and unicorn, Figure 3 from "Alchymistica", 17th/18th century document found in Benedictine Abbey Admont, Austria...

"The Sages say truly

That two animals are in this forest..."

"...One glorious, beautiful, and swift,

A great and strong deer;

The other an unicorn.

They are concealed in the forest,

But happy shall that man be called

Who shall snare and capture them..."

"...The Masters shew you here clearly

That in all places

These two animals wander about in forests

(But know that the forest is but one)..."

"...If we apply the parable to our Art,

We shall call the forest the Body.

That will be rightly and truly said.

The unicorn will be the Spirit at all times.

The deer desires no other name

But that of the Soul; which name no man shall take away from it..."

"...He that knows how to tame and master them by Art,

To couple them together,

And to lead them in and out of the forest,

May justly be called a Master..."

"...For we rightly judge

That he has attained the golden flesh,

And may triumph everywhere;

Nay, he may bear rule over great Augustus."

From "Book Of Lambspring" by Nicholas Barnaud Delphinas...

Let's test my "Art" on this...

Deer and unicorn, in "the same" forest, surrounded by "fiery ouroboros"...What does this mean?

The true meaning of a unicorn is easy to decipher if we know that they are white horses, and if we know that horse is one of the most widespread solar symbols...

I talked about Horse (Equid) as a solar symbol in many of my posts: 

Iran "Water carrier equid", "Dioscuri plate from Iran"

Mesopotamia "Shamash playing with the solar horse", "Sun god from Tell Brak"

India "Hayagriva"

China "Longma", "Three legged crow", "Mythical beast from Xian"

Levant "Alexamenos graffito", "Goddess on a horse", "Unicorn"

Europe "Archaic rider", "Beotian solar pyxis", "Pegasus and chimera", "King John", "The horseman", "Artemis Orthia"...

Horse is a solar symbol cause wild equid mating season, characterised by wild stallion fights, starts in Apr/May, at the beginning of summer, and ends in Sep/Oct...Equid  fertility is governed by the sunlight, and peaks on summer solstice...

Now unicorn has the same symbolic meaning as white horses...Unicorn is a solar animal, symbolising the hot, sunny half of the year...The virgin that "calms" the Unicorn is Virgo, Aug/Sep (horse mating season ends in Sep/Oct)...

BTW, Unicorn horn is described as "being cubit and a half (28 inches) in length". Erect horse's penis length 🙂 is max 28 inches...

I talked about Unicorns as animal calendar markers in my posts "Reem" and "Unicorn"...

What about the deer? Deer with fully grown antlers is a symbol of winter, because antlers become fully grown just before deer rut (Sep/Oct/Nov) and fall off just before beginning of summer, Apr/May...

I talked about deer as animal calendar marker for winter in my posts "Winter deer", "Dancing with deer and birds", "The return of Apollo to Delos", "Patera of Rennes", "Deer kills snake"...

So basically, unicorn=horny horse and deer are two animal calendar markers marking summer and winter. Two (opposite) halves of the same solar year (forrest)...Talked about it in my post "White stag":

"As for the White Roebuck [Stag], how many kings in how many fairy tales have not chased this beast through enchanted forests and been cheated of their quarry?"

That we are here looking at solar year calendar markers is confirmed by the fact that deer and unicorn are framed by the Ouroboros. 

The true meaning of the Ouroboros, "The serpent biting it's tail", is easy to decipher if we know that snake is a pure solar animal. It is in our world when sun is here (day, hot half of the year) and it is in the underworld when sun is there (night, cold half of the year)...

I talked about this in many of my posts...

Basically Ouroboros represents the ever spinning the solar wheel...the ever changing seasons: Spring-Summer-Autumn-Winter-Spring...the ever changing temperature of the sun and earth in continental parts of the northern hemisphere...

It is symbolic equivalent of this:

You know that Yin-Yang symbol is imagined as constantly spinning, ever changing? I talked about this in my post "Yin and Yang"...

So...

"He that knows how to tame and master [deer and unicorn], To couple them together...May justly be called a Master..."

He who knows the true meaning of Stag and Unicorn and how they are linked, and who knows how to use them...May justly be called a Master?

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Chinese dragon

Bronze dragon, from Shi Siming's tomb near Beijing, a Turko-Sogdian general who proclaimed himself an emperor in the rebellion against Tang dynasty in 8th c. His Sogdian name -suat-kan- is a Manichaean term for "flame"...

Snake = Sun's heat. Dragon = Old Snake = destructive Sun's heat of the late summer early autumn, which causes drought...

This is true in Mesopotamia (I talked about it in my post "Seven headed dragon")

In Bactria (I talked about this in my post "Bactrian snakes and dragons")

In Europe (I talked about this in my posts "Enemy of the sun" and "Dragon that stole rain")

But not in China...Chinese dragon is a rain deity that fosters harmony...Why? Because of Chinese climate...

Dragons appeared in China for the first time during Neolithic...These artifacts, called "jade dragon rings" from the Xinglongwa culture (6200–5400BC) are interpreted as the oldest dragon depictions in China...

The Hongshan_culture (4700-2900BC) succeeded Xinglongwa culture. And they loved dragon rings...So much they became obsessed with them and made pile and pile and pile of them...

Looks familiar? This is the earliest example of Ouroboros: Serpent biting its tail. Remember Dragon is an old snake, which represents sun's heat. Dragons's head is the hottest part of the year, and his tail is the coldest part of the year...And the dragon/serpent biting its tail represents never ending spinning of the solar year and the change of seasons... 

I talked about this in my post "Yormungandr"... 

Before I saw these Neolithic Chinese Ouroboroses I thought that they appeared for the first time in Ancient Egypt. 

Did you know that the 4th century AD Latin commentator Servius says the Egyptian use of the Ouroboros symbol to represent the cyclical nature of the year...

So if dragon is the symbol of the destructive heat of the late summer, why is the Chinese dragon "a rain deity that fosters harmony"?

Because this is what the climatic year looks like in North Eastern China: The maximum heat corresponds to maximum precipitation...

The dragon (the hottest sun of the late summer early autumn) really does bring rain...Shit loads of it actually...

Yin (water, down, rain) and Yang (fire, up, sun) in balance and harmony...

I talked about Yin and Yang as a symbolic description of the interplay between sun and earth and the climate they create in my post "Yin and Yang"...

By the way, did I mention that the dragon mad Hongshan culture guys belonged to the paternal haplogroup N-M231??? It is estimated that this was the predominant haplogroup in the region in the Neolithic period at 89%, its share gradually declining over time!!!

Today this haplogroup is most common in Finland, the Baltic states and among northern Siberian ethnicities, such as the Yakuts.

Any Fins here today? What the fuck were you guys doing in China 7000 years ago and what's the story with the "dragon thingy"? 

Well the story is all about the beginning of agriculture and the domestication of millet...But more about it in another post soon....

Jörmungandr

The other day I came across this pendant on one of the auction sites with the description: "Medieval Period - Viking Pendant Depicting Coiled Sea Serpent - Jörmungandr". Lot closed. 145$...

In Norse mythology, Jörmungandr is a giant serpent whom Odin tossed into the great ocean that encircles Midgard.  The serpent is so large that it is able to surround the earth and grasp its own tail, receiving the name "World Serpent". It's arch-enemy is the thunder-god Thor...

The stories about Thor's encounters with this serpent are very interesting. They are full of symbols whose meaning, by the time the stories were recorded, was almost completely forgotten...Uncovering the meaning of these symbols will show us the true identity of Jörmungandr...

Before I analyse the only two preserved Norse stories about the encounters between Jörmungandr and Thor, I will first just quickly remind you all of the main thing Thor (as the thunder god) has to do in Indoeuropean mythology: he has to kill the dragon (Serpent)...

The identity of this Dragon (Serpent) can be deduced from, for instance, the Slavic myth about Perun, Thunder god, killing Veles, Great Serpent, who stole Perun's cattle (clouds). Perun kills Veles, releases his cattle (clouds), and rains return...

Snake is in Slavic mythology directly linked with the sun. It is the symbol of sun's heat. The symbol of summer. The snakes are in the underworld during the winter and are in our wold during the spring, summer autumn, when sun dominates the Sun-Earth system...

In the spring, sun's heat is a positive force which creates life. But as summer progresses, the heat gets stronger and stronger. And by the end of the summer, sun's heat becomes a negative force which destroys life. And so the snake grows into the Great Snake, The Dragon...

The dragon that has to be killed, or his fiery breath will turn everything into cinder. Ta-Dah!!! Enters The Thunder god of your choice, battle ensues...and the dragon dies...The drought ends, the rains return, the world is saved (again)...

In Slavic mythology, Thunder god Perun kills Great Snake Veles on Perun's day, 2nd of August, the day that marks the end of Summer, and beginning of Autumn. This day falls in the middle of Leo zodiac sign, when sun is the hottest...I talked about this in my post "Thundering sun god"...

So, Great Serpent, Dragon (Draught) dies in Leo :) Or to say it another way, Lion kills Serpent. This Romanesque object depicts Lion killing Snake under the head of Helios. Perun's day is in Serbia also the day of St Elijah, Christianised Helios...I talked about it in my post "Lion killing snake"...

Ok, back to Thor and Jörmungandr. This is one of only two preserved stories about the encounters between the Thunder god and the Great Serpent...You'll love it...

The part "the serpent disguised by magic in the form of a magic colossal cat" would make no sense at all, if we didn't know that in Slavic mythology, the Thunder God fights and kills the Great Serpent in the middle of Leo...

Now all of a sudden it all makes perfect sense...Including the fact that Thor can't lift the Great Serpent disguised as a Great Cat. One other story, from Egypt, can also be decoded using the same symbol dictionary: The story of Apep, Great Chaos Serpent...I talked about this in detail in my post "Apep"...

Guess what. Apep is killed by Ra (Sun) in a form of a Cat (Leo)...When the Great Serpent is killed, inundation of the Nile is at it's highest level, nature is saved, hence the tree behind the snake...

Of course this whole thing doesn't make much sense in far north, where there is little chance of sun causing draughts...

Jörmungandr and Thor meet again when Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymir. Hymir is a very interesting giant indeed. He is the father of the god Týr, whom Romans identified as Aries, the god of War...

Now in Slavic mythology, god Jarilo, is the Young Sun God, who was in Greek Mythology personified by Apollo, who replaced Helios, the old Titan (Giant) Sun God...

The root of the name Jarilo is "jar" which can mean both "green, young" and "raging heat, raging anger". Jarilo is symbol of male (and Sun) energy, which can be both creative and distructive...It is suspicious how close Jarilo is to Ares, the god of rage (jara)...

So is Giant Hymir, the father of Týr (Ares, Jarilo) actually Titan Helios? After all Perun kills The Great Serpent on the day of Helios, the hottest day in the northern hemisphere...And here in this story Thor kills Jörmungandr while fishing with Hymir (father of Ares)...

This story is great. The part: "Hymir refuses to provide Thor with bait, Thor strikes the head off Hymir's largest ox to use as his bait" makes no sense unless we know that Summer which is ruled by The Great Serpent, starts in Taurus, Bull...

In Slavic mythology, Perun kills the Great Serpent at the end of summer. At the end of the season whose symbol is The bull...So Bull also dies on Perun's day...I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

That there is a direct link between bull and dragon can be seen from some legends preserved in the Balkans, in which young girls were sacrificed to the Giant Bull rather than to the Dragon...I talked about this in my post "Water bull"...

So Thor kills the bull to kill the Dragon...This is the Altuna Runestone showing Thor fishing for three headed dragon using a bull head...With his hammer on the ready to strike the final blow...

What is interesting is that in the Balkans, the day of Perun, the day of Helios, is the day when people organise Bull fights. I talked about this in my post "Alidjun"...

This is also the day when bulls are ceremonially slaughtered, roasted and eaten...Historical sources tell us that Slavs sacrificed bulls to Perun...So these bull fights were originally probably a ritual in which the best bull was chosen to be sacrificed to Perun...

I talked about ritual slaughtering of Bulls in Slavic culture, and the meaning of this ritual, in my  post "Bull of Grom Div"...

But it wasn't just Slavs who sacrificed bulls, symbol of summer which starts in Taurus, at the end of summer...The Old Gaels (The Irish) did it too. I talked about this in my post "Bull of Crom Dubh"...

So what are we to make of all this? Well, well done Thor, you are truly Indoeuropean Thunder god now. You killed your Great Serpent, Dragon...But why is it that this Norse legend can be explained through Slavic folk tradition, but not through Norse folk tradition? Or can it be?

Also, as I already said, the story makes no sense in the far north. In the far north the Thunder god has no need to kill the heat of the summer. The opposite is the case...In the far north you want sun to be hot and the summer to last as long as possible...

There is one more thing that can be decoded once we know what does the cat represent. Why is Freya riding around in chariots pulled by cats...She is just another representation of Virgo, the feminine, yin, earth influence which becomes ever stronger from the middle of Leo...

I talked about this ubiquitous Lion Lady in my post "Assumption of Mary"...

One other thing. Why is The Great Serpent Jörmungandr biting its tail? Enters Ouroboros. This symbol of the serpent biting its tail was first seen in Egypt. There it is linked to deity Mehen, who in other funerary texts protects Ra in his underworld journey...

Ra spends every night in cold watery underworld. In order to emerge bright and shining in the morning, Ra's fire, his heat, needs to be preserved. By coiled snake... Symbol of sun's heat in Slavic mythology...

Ra's heat also needs to be preserved during the winter. According to the 4th-century AD Latin commentator Servius who was aware of the Egyptian use of the Ouroboros symbol, the image of a snake biting its tail represented the cyclical nature of the year...Solar wheel...

That Ouroboros did represent the solar year, the ever turning (changing) life creating solar wheel, can be seen from Gnostic Pistis Sophia (c. 400 AD), which describes the ouroboros, the soul of the world, as a twelve-part dragon, surrounding the world with its tail in its mouth

In my post "Yin and Yang", I talked about this ever changing, life producing interplay between the Earth and the Sun...

One thing that most people don't know, is that the Yin-Yang symbol is spinning and ever changing. The Great serpent, the Sun, The Yang, is constantly oscillating between its minimum (in the middle of maximum Yin) to it's maximum (where we find minimum Yin in the middle of it)...

This is what "Serpent biting it's tail means". Dragon, The Great Serpent doesn't get killed by Thor or Perun or any other Thunder god. It kills (eats) itself. Spring-Summer-Autumn-Winter-Spring...The ever spinning Ouroboros, the solar wheel...

And this is why the end of the world will come when Jörmungandr spits its tail...Because that means that the Earth-Sun system has gone out of balance. The heat will either increase so much that the world will burn, or will decrease so much that the world will freeze...

I love Jörmungandr...